House of Paine

july fourth 150 years ago

want to celebrate
our independence day right ?

 try beating this


  July 4 1854

====================


  150 years ago

here's 

what was goin down 
  in 
 Framingham  town 

this very day 


yes

 framingham mass


home today

 of 

SHOPPERS WORLD 


AMERICA’S 

FIRST

 LAST

 AND ALWAYS

 MALL TO THE MILLIONS

 
and 

 my alma mater

MARSH BROTHERS 

THE NATION'S 

FUN - EST  

 FURNITURE ADVENTURE
        ANYWHERE  


THIS  TOWN
 OF 90 THOUSAND 
VERY DISPERATE SOULS


renowned in 6 states 
 
yes

 SIX STATES 

for its  
      very very 
 public celebration
 of the country's
 one and only
annual 
independence day 
     

theirs
 is 

"a  fire works
 display
 bigger then
 all out doors "

---------------------------------

but  150 years ago

in 1854 

Framingham 
was 
  a   quiet 
toil
 and 
thrift  
  produced  
farm town 

20  miles 
out side
 of Boston

which
 just happened 
to be 
the place  

where
  each year
       the Abolitionists 
       of the commonwealth

held a picnic 

SANG SONGS 

and 
 gave each other 
speeches
 
on the 4th of  july
---------------------------------------

the folks trying to end african slavery

met each year 
 out there

  among the mown hay  fields 
   
  and   rolling hills   
       
      all that sun drenched  bucolia
    ever so very 
          skinned to near death
                                  by sweated brows  
        out there    by all means  
                           beside    a small  shimmering lake 
--------------------------------------------------------------
that year 
in particular
 more then most 

their celebration
 was really 

a "counter "
celebration

while

 the rest 
of the bay  state's 
       citizenry

mostly just 

blew off steam
and 
blew up rockets

like we still do now 


like 

 “all damn fine patriotic  fools should do ” 

 

out there in Framingham

these 600 abolitionists
were 
doin it up different

instead of drinking rum 
like sailors on shore leave

they 
sipping grape juice  
and 
 patting young heads 

instead of exploding everything in sight
or at least setting it on fire


they sang hymns 
in stead of 
dancing till dawn 

instead 
of hangin and drapin

under old glory

up every pole
and off  every overhang

they 
 
 flew only one  
                     old glory
  and they flew her
       upside down 
                and 
       fringed with black crepe

---------------------------------------

that
 year had been way tougher then most
for these undauntable  quixotes 

already
the yrear had brought 
 too many 
     " bloody  harbingers " 

     of the coming

          "great and final 
                      reckoning "

the fucking 

  free soil  act

 had just been
 
 rammed thru congress

           that past   May 

  and with it  
          the   
       bleeding  of kansas 
              was underway

“  that  final  sodomy of freedom”
---------------------------------------------
 and
 the  very same month 

 federal troops
 had  filled the streets of Boston

    to return a single
                   fugitive slave 

a quiet fellow from virginia 
 
named Anthony  Burns

what a devils  madi gras ! 

  ====================

“ the  rum soaked
          breath 
of  apes in arms
 pollutes
 our  side walks “

  lucretia mott 

===================
“  beasts  prowl  
       among us 

      two legged     beasts 
                here 
           to do  tyranny’s bidding ”

                      kitty stone 
======================

 “ once more
this again 

  but heavans 
     is this possible ?

           our eyes blink
               in astonishment

 this  the cradle of liberty
        and yet
    everywhere 
                  there they are 

          the  malicious glints  of
              fixed   bayonets
          
  god above 
            
      has  Boston awakened  back  80 years ? ”

                                         sam lowell 
===========================

 “  arise   doltish boston
   arise  
     the moment to act
      has come
           once again

         dump  the slave powers  
             godless    fugitive act 
                        into  the harbor 
                          like British   tea ”

                    "coffin bob" templeton 
========================

then 
in the midst of all this 
came the noble response 

THE HEROIC 
CITIZENS 
 ASSAULT 
ON THE BOSTON  COURT HOUSE

in an attempt to free burns

they were 
met 
with " hired clubs"
and
 “ insolent authority”


the assault mustered

A MIXED RACE GROUPING
but 
with one common  motive 

" free burns
no matter how " 

these chaps
were  
there for bizness
not show

in fact 

the" enraged would be  liberators "
 
praise the lord

managed in the melee

 to 

"  clip off 
       the hell bound soul "
          of 
one particularly ugly  
deputized sadistic  hard on 


(then again 
i hasten to add
this whole branigan 
  was hardly 
         meat 
to our hero here
          nope
 not for a moment
 
“no arms” Billy  Lloyd’s
 idea of struggle 
  god love him
  was cheek turning 
 he was 
 "agin "
 all civil acts of  violence 

afterwards he could only
 wag  his finger 
 in deepest  regret  

  but  fuck

he was a fighter still 
just u wait and see)
  


at any rate 

after the failed gallantry
 of the liberation 
jail assault

the entire  great heart
of people was openned
as they  watched
  in anguish  
this “ lone African”
  surrounded
 by hundreds of troopers

 “marched back to his slavery”
------------------------------------------
                  

as whittier wrote

“ liberty herself walked
               in  handcuffs  
      down state street 
                   this morning”
------------------------------------------------
“ this single act
        makes our  nation's hallowed
      Declaration a total lie ”
                                    garrison 
                                   himself wrote
       
and again 

          in Whittier's words

                     the “law”
                              had proved itself
 
                                  “an unloosed maniac”

even   walden ponds 
 part time anchorite 

found words 
that seemed
   at least at first blush 
  to 
 auger more  
             then  a posturing

“ my thoughts
       on thiz :

  ‘ murder to the state’  ”


n.b

thoughts but 
  nerey an act
------------------------------------

 rallying fast
 
the anti slavers
 
declared

a day
  of   
 mouning

for that years

 “ fourth celebration ”


not a call
for 
a  state murder party
 for sure

but the hackles
of conscience 
 were rising very fast indeed 
 -------------------------------------
  
 and  so

on  that fourth day of the seventh month 

of that eighteen hundredth 
                and 
fifty fourth year of their lord


      indeed  
  they met and 
        mourned in framingham

lifting 
 their voices 
dolefully
on that anniversary 
of our declaration
of  independence 
as a people

lifted them 
against
the brutal sins 
of 
" our peculiar infamy "
-------------------------------
 
 giving 
 the  final speech
 that  afternoon 
 
was of course
the prerogative 
of their chiefest  champion
and 
that day 
the great garrison
 perhaps 
 reached 
the summit 
       of all 
 his years of ceaseless 
          agitation

 when
 at the end 
of what 

coming 
from  him

"the unshakeable oak "
      of the  great  cause 
  
must have seemed
       an

 " unusually 
 melancholy  rendering 
of the past years  events "


 the great man 
turned
 to a pile of papers behind him
and plucking up the top piece

held it high above
his  bald "goof"
 of a    head   

 shouting 

" this is  the fugitive slave law 

                      if ever there existed a  parchment of lies.... "

a roar went up at this 

 " brothers and sisters
  today 
      as a testimony 
            straight from  my  own soul
       i wish to show you all
              my deeply considered estimation 
                        of such of
                  our nations laws
                                 as this one is ”
and 
  striking a match 
 he  set the paper  ablaze
 
 the soundings  of that
 till then subdued gathering

  " rolled across 
       the countryside
           like   victory itself   "

and   to  a second roar 

Garrison  shouted 

" let the people say
                      amen" 

and 
 proceeded

to pluck up 

      brandish 

             and  
                      burn

            " the court order
                       that sent 
             our peace loving 
                 momentarily free 
              mister  Burns back to 
                his shackles  in Virginia " 

and next  
                he burned

     the grand jury indictment 
                      of the boston
                               court house protesters
                
              " this profane  act 
                of a  narrow  blinkered citizenry"


and  finally 

he took up 

" this last  parchment....

     our national   constitution

                 the   foul  source  
                        and parent 

                of all these  other atrocities ”

       after a  signifigant pause 
                 he most joyously
                     set it   bursting into flames 

“ so perish all compromises with tyranny ”
                                                        

  he  ended  
 
  amidst 
a roar that 

"reached all the way
  to the distant heart of commercial  boston" 
    

 once more 
           with the refrain 

   “ let the people say
                                       AMEN "


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